The parents interested in World Traveling School may not have a Montessori background or experience. Any hands?
What is Montessori? Why Montessori? Does my kid need a Montessori classroom? What about Waldorf? What about online schooling?
Montessori curriculum is over 100 years old. Here are some big picture reference points, so you can connect with why Montessori is amazing AND why World Traveling School is an optimal environment for a child carrying out their cosmic task.
Definitions.
1. Guide – Instead of a teacher, Montessori has guides who act as facilitators to a child-led education. The guide observes the child and prepares lesson plans tailored to that child’s needs. If a child is primarily interested in language activities, a guide may introduce math material to spark the child’s interest.
2. Cosmic education – a “unifying global and universal view of the past, present and future.” Everything is connected. Everything within the world has a task to fulfill a need and contributes to the good of the whole.
3. Cosmic task – Children have an innate desire to make sense of the world and make it better.
In Montessori, a child learns the concrete first and THEN the abstract. A child sees an iguana in a classroom, being introduced to the eyes, tail, toes, dewlap. Only after seeing the iguana, does the child then learn about reptiles.
Montessori also teaches the whole and THEN the parts. A child is introduced to the whole world, before continents, before countries, before the child’s country.
Children learn music, language, art, geography, biology and traditions from other countries.
With this learning approach, children are already primed to be big-picture thinkers. They recognize that there is order in the classroom, as well as the world, so they create a mindful structure for how to operate within the universe. They recognize the importance of cooperation in achieving goals, following and leading.
Montessori nurtures a child’s universal or “cosmic” task by fostering curiosity and compassion toward others. When you observe a Montessori classroom, you’ll notice:
- Children cleaning up after themselves
- Cleaning up a space very well
- Grace and courtesy, as a child walks around another’s work mat or doesn’t interrupt another child working
- Caring for plants
- Cleaning materials
- Helping to prepare food
- Older children happy to help younger children
- Younger children eager to learn from older children
The reward of these things is intrinsic fulfillment in helping others. When a child fulfills the role of helping others, the world makes sense.
Montessori as a Whole
Montessori is an incredibly intentional model. The founder, Dr. Maria Montessori recognized this sort of education could reshape society, “not through any imposition of academic requirements upon children, but by supporting the development of the mind, body and spirit of each child’s unique potential and development.”
In Montessori:
- Lesson plans are individualized because every child has unique interests and needs
- Classrooms are small (World Traveling School is 1 guide or assistant to 5 children, with up to 10 children per cohort)
- Classrooms are multi-age, which more closely resembles the real world
You can find more about Montessori itself here.
Worldschooling & Montessori
By being in 3 countries a year, our school not only embodies “cosmic education” and helps a child become aware of a “cosmic task” through the Montessori-method, as it was intended, but adds a new layer to cultural immersion that hasn’t existed before.
In 2010, a school like this couldn’t have existed. Now, with whole families being on the road, we offer an education never previously in existence.
Digital nomad families find the education of a lifetime in living in foreign countries. Their children receive an academic Montessori education propelling their individual, social and emotional well-being.
